Privacy and Freedom of Information in 21st-Century Libraries

Just as our users’ reading and intellectual pursuits have extended into new media, our intellectual freedom concerns as librarians have long ago expanded well beyond the realm of book censorship alone. As libraries increasingly move beyond provision of print material and into their expanding roles as providers of digital resources and services, intellectual freedom concerns have been magnified as they apply to a range of complex new issues.

--Angela Mayock, assistant director of the
Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library
Association, from the Introduction to Privacy and Freedom of Information in 21st-Century Libraries

In the November/December issue of Library Technology Reports, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom assembled an all-star cast of writers to explore the challenges to privacy that ongoing shifts in technology have created, and how librarians can address them.